New York Giants Practice Report: July 29, 2022

Giants training camp practice No. 3 is in the books.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Part of a head coach’s many roles is to build relationships with his players.

Some coaches are successful at that, while others not so much so. Understandably, it’s a tricky proposition as people are different, and what works with one individual might not work with another.

Giants head coach Brian Daboll knows this very well. In his effort to build a relationship with receiver Kadarius Toney, who is coming off a nightmarish rookie season and an off-season in which he had to rehab from knee surgery and be the subject of trade rumors, Daboll looked for a common ground with the receiver.

That ground is music, the universal language. Daboll, who is a big rap and country music fan, made sure to include some of Toney’s music—the receiver goes by the stage name “Yung Joka”--into the daily practice playlist.

“He’s a good person. He cares about his teammates. And we have good communication, him and I,” Daboll said of Toney. “He likes football. He likes music. I think he’s a very loyal, a loyal guy. And you got to build trust with KT, and he had to build trust with me. Really no different than a lot of guys.”

Toney might have easily irked Daboll back in the spring when he skipped out on the start of the voluntary off-season conditioning program. But Daboll insisted that he wasn’t bothered by the second-year receiver’s decision, adding that the two of them had productive conversations.

“Trust is probably one of the most important things in any relationship you can build. I’ve told you from Day 1 I’ve been very happy with KT, his approach, how he is as a person, first and foremost, because that’s what matters to me. We’ve seen him in college. We evaluated him. He has a tremendous skill set. He’s smart. We move him around quite a bit. He’s a good young player that we’re going to help develop anyway we can both on and off the field.”

Toney, whom Daboll said sends him some of his songs, admitted he was pleasantly surprised when one of the tunes made it into the playlist.

“I think that’s pretty great; I’m not going to lie,” he said. “It had me juiced up. I appreciate them for doing it because it shows the willingness to build a relationship with me. (But)

I need to focus right now. I’m focused on ball right now.”

So far, so good, as Toney and teammate Wan’Dale Robinson are already showing just how important he'll be to this offense. Both have made plays catching the ball in the intermediate (10-15 yard) range and have been turning those plays into big gainers. That should go a long way toward getting a stagnant Giants offense back on track.

Injury Report

No change to the PUP list (receiver Sterling Shepard, center Nick Gates and tackle Matt Peart) or NFI (outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari).

Ojulari, who is week to week, was spotted doing some work on a nearby field with a trainer watching.

Starting center Jon Feliciano was held out of practice due to the aftereffects of Thursday’s brutally hot and humid day. Jamil Douglas and Max Garcia took reps at center in Feliciano’s absence. Unfortunately, for the Giants, snapping the ball was an adventure, as at least three of the snaps were poor (including one during a walk-through scenario).

Not only was the snapping not as crisp, but there were probably a few too many jailbreaks by the defense in getting into the backfield at the snap. To be fair, though, it’s hard to tell for sure if the jailbreaks were legit or a result of the team still being in the acclimation period where contact is still not allowed. Still, it did seem like different members of the defense were living in the Giants offensive backfield a little too often on the day.

Inside linebacker Blake Martinez, who had a slight increase in his workload Thursday, had his reps reduced on Friday, though it’s unclear if that was because the Giants went to a lot of their dime package or if it had to do with his ongoing rehab from a torn ACL.

Daboll’s Training Camp Practice Plan

The Giants opened training camp focused on the red zone. On Day 2, they focused on third and short, and then on Day 3, it was third-and-long.

That sequence so far caused one to wonder if the Giants chose to open camp with that sequence since the red zone and third-down conversions were so bad for the Giants last year.

Here is his response.

It’s areas you need to work on. Red zone is a really important area in terms of scoring the football and then stopping and creating field goals--an area we definitely need to work on. It also helps players coming back from being down 30, 40 days of working in the offseason.

And you’re not running 20 go routes or covering posts or deep crossers and things like that. And then usually on like a third and two-to-five day, it’s a lot shorter routes, too. You’re running routes at the sticks, or you’re running shallow crossers, things like that. So, some of the running in the ramp-up period helps those guys. Today it’ll be a little bit longer.

Again, trying to put players in stressful situations in practice is important. That’s why you practice. You learn from it, and you move on. You see if you can fix the things you need to fix. So that’s kind of what we’re doing. I’d say the next day is kind of the fringe area – in that area – and then we got a day off. Then we’ll start with pads. That will be a first and second down day where we can kind of get after it in the running game and really start playing real football if you will.”

Practice Observations

As previously noted, there were a few adventures with snapping the ball while Jon Feliciano sidelined. While I counted just three really bad snaps (including one in which there wasn’t even a defender lined up across from the offense), that’s still three too many in my estimation, as all it takes is one aborted snap to give the defense a turnover.

I’m also not sure if it was because Feliciano was missing or if it’s because with camps still being in acclimation mode and thus not allowing contact, the offensive linemen can’t get as physical as they need to be against the pass rush. 

Whatever the reason, I thought there was far too much pressure on the quarterbacks in this practice. I counted at least four instances where there should have been sacks and a handful of others where the quarterback was moved off his mark.

I’m developing an appreciation for Matt Breida and how he runs. Breida does a nice job of deciding where he’s going with the ball and hitting the holes without hesitation. Again, there’s no contact just yet, but you can also see signs of him looking to lower his shoulder and just plow straight ahead.

I couldn’t tell you exactly how many sacks there might have been throughout the day, but there was consistent pressure. Quarterbacks, wearing red non-contact jerseys, were constantly being moved off their spot or flushed out of the pocket as they searched desperately for a place to throw the ball.

Speaking of the quarterback, Daniel Jones, to my eyes, has been inconsistent this week. Again, how much of that s a result of him developing a comfort level with the tempo cranked up is up for debate, but I also think there have been some throws he’s attempted that maybe he shouldn’t have tried. 

Remember, though, the coaches want Jones to take a few more chances, and maybe that’s what he’s doing, but there are also some throws you see him make that clearly should never have been attempted.

Cornerback Darnay Holmes produced his third interception in as many days, this one a Pick-6 on a Jones pass intended for Wan’Dale Robinson. And safety Xavier McKinney very nearly produced a pick of his own on a poorly thrown pass by Jones.

Aaron Robinson continues to shine. You can tell he’s just waiting to hit somebody hard. Robinson has looked steady in coverage. Robinson was usually in a good position even when a receiver caught the ball. I don’t think I’ve seen an instance where he’s been so badly fooled in coverage.

Dane Belton got some reps with the first-team defense as part of the team’s dime package (six defensive backs). Tae Crowder took most of the snaps as the idle linebacker, with Blake Martinez, who saw an increased workload the prior day, having his load lightened.

Dexter Lawrence knocked down a pass attempt by Daniel Jones. Lawrence had two pass deflections last season and has five for his career.

Graham Gano went six of eight on field goal attempts, missing a pair of 42-yarders.

---

Join the Giants Country Community

• Sign up for our FREE digest newsletter
• Follow and like us on Facebook
• Submit your questions for our mailbag
• Check out the new Giants Country YouTube Channel.
• Listen and subscribe to the daily LockedOn Giants podcast.
• Subscribe and like the LockedOn Giants YouTube Channel
• Sign up for our FREE message board forums